How to Fix Bad iOS 10 Battery Life

The long list of iOS 10 problems includes abnormal battery life drain and today we want to show you how to fix bad battery life on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch if you’re running iOS 10.3.3 or an older version of Apple’s iOS 10 operating system.

In the months since iOS 10’s release, Apple’s pushed several updates to iOS 10 users. These updates have delivered new features and bug fixes for lingering iOS 10 problems.

Apple’s eradicated a number of iOS 10 problems but many still remain. iOS 10.3.3 and iOS 10.3.2 users, and those using older versions of iOS 10, are complaining about a number of frustrating issues including severe battery drain.

how the heck do u delete ios 10.3.2 its been draining my battery so severely i went from 97% to 29% while watching a 10 min video

Abnormal battery drain is a common iOS problem and it pops up every time Apple releases a new update for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

iOS updates aren’t supposed to have a negative effect on your device’s battery life so we’re not surprised to see some iPhone and iPad users expressing their frustration to Apple and its customer service representatives.

How to Fix Bad iOS 10 Battery Life

There are more than a few potential remedies for bad iOS 10 battery life issues.

This guide will show you how to potentially fix bad iOS 10 battery life on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Battery drain issues can be tricky but these fixes have worked well for us, and others, in the past.

These fixes will work with all versions of iOS 10 including the company’s current version of iOS 10, iOS 10.3.3.

Check Your Apps

Before you blame iOS 10 for your battery troubles, note that there’s a very good chance it’s something else causing the battery drain on your iPhone or iPad.

If your battery life starts acting up with iOS 10 on board, the first place to look is at your collection of applications. There’s a very good chance an app, or apps, is hogging your device’s resources and causing the problem.

The first place you’ll want to look is your Settings. Go into Settings > Battery and get familiar with the Battery Usage tool that arrived with the iOS 9 update in 2015.

This tool will show you what apps are eating the most battery and when. Look for something out of the ordinary.

If you do see something odd, check the App Store for an update. Developers are rolling out bug fixes and iOS 10 support updates that could improve performance.

If an update fails to cure the issue, try reinstalling or uninstalling the app completely to see if that helps settle your device’s battery.

Check Your Widgets

Widgets are extremely prominent in iOS 10. And if you have a ton of widgets active, they could be sucking up a bunch of power in the background.

To get started, swipe to the right while on your device’s home screen. Scroll all the way to bottom of your widgets and select Edit. It’s a little circle icon.

You should see a long list of services and apps. To remove a widget, tap the red circle with the white line and tap Remove.

Remove as many as you desire and see if it has a positive effect on your battery’s performance.

Use Low Power Mode

If you haven’t been using iOS’ built-in Low Power Mode, now would be a good time to get familiar with this important feature.

The iOS 9 update delivered a new feature called Low Power Mode. It’s important because it allows you to stretch out the last 10-20% of battery life on your device without having to make a bunch of manual changes.

To enable Low Power Mode on your device go to Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode > On. This feature will help you conserve a few hours of battery life.

Start using this feature on a regular basis.

Use Airplane Mode

If you suddenly start experiencing rapid battery drain, it might be because you’re in an area with poor cellular coverage.

When you are in a bad service area, your iPhone or iPad will work hard to try and find a signal. This can cause your battery to drain rapidly. This is a perfect time to flip on Airplane Mode.

Airplane Mode is found at the very top of your Settings and it will kill all of your connections when turned on. If you’ve done any air travel during the past few years, you’re probably familiar with the feature.

Once you’ve entered a new service area, turn Airplane Mode off and you should notice an improvement to your device’s battery life.

Disable iCloud Keychain

If you don’t use iCloud Keychain, try disabling it to see if that improves battery life. This has worked for a number of people in the past.

If it doesn’t have a positive impact on battery, you can always toggle it back on when you need it again.

Limit Background App Refresh

Do you need your apps to automatically refresh in the background? No? Well then you might want to try disabling the Background App Refresh feature on your device. It could help you conserve battery life.

Background App Refresh is handy because it will allows your apps to show you the latest data once you open them. It can also be a resource hog.

If you don’t use or care about this feature, go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh > and turn it off for each app that is using too much power. It’s going to be an extremely tedious process for some of you but it could help your battery life.

You can also turn the feature off completely if you don’t want to go through your list of applications one by one.

If this doesn’t help, you can turn the feature back on for all of your apps or some of them.

Turn Email Auto-Fetching Off

If your phone is continuously monitoring your email accounts, it’s probably sucking up your battery life. If you don’t need push turned on for all or some of your email accounts, try turning it off.

To do that, head into Settings > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data. Switch your accounts from Push to Manual.

You’ll now have to manually check for new email but this little change could save you a few battery percentage points.

Manage Your Display

Apple’s mobile devices use sensors to adjust the screen automatically in certain lighting environments. Sometimes these sensors work, sometimes they’re a little off. A bright screen can eat up battery life so we recommend getting a handle on your device’s display.

Turn Off Raise to Wake

To turn off the Raise to Wake, go to Settings > Display & Brightness and then toggle the Raise to Wake function off.

You can always turn it back on if you don’t see any gains.

Restart Your iPhone or iPad

If you’re looking for a quick fix, try a simple restart.

Hold down the power button for a few seconds and swipe to shut the device down. Hold down the power button again to boot the device back up. Sometimes, this dislodges battery life issues.

You can also try a hard reset. To do that, hold down the home button and the power button (volume down and power button on an iPhone 7/iPhone 7 Plus) for about 10 seconds. The device will restart itself. This won’t remove any data.

Reset All Settings

If none of these fixes help, it’s time to take more drastic measures to fix your bad iOS 10 battery life.

The first solution we recommend is a reset of your settings. To do this, go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings and then enter your passcode. If you don’t have a passcode enabled, you obviously don’t need to replicate that step.

This process should take five minutes or more and it will restore your settings to their factory defaults. So, make sure you have all of your Wi-Fi passwords handy because your phone or tablet will forget them.

Upgrade to a Newer Version of iOS 10

If you’re running an older version of iOS 10 and you’re noticing abnormal battery drain, you might try upgrading to the current version of iOS 10.

There’s no guarantee the iOS 10.3.3 update will solve your problem but we, and others, have noticed improvements.

Restore the iOS 10 Update

If you have a bunch of free time on your hands you can try a restore on your iPhone or iPad.

This step should only be used as a last resort because it will temporarily erase everything on your device and could take awhile to complete.

You can try restoring from your backup after you install iOS 10. If your iOS 10 battery life issues return after the restore, you will want to try this method again without restoring from your backup.

Install iOS 11.2.6 for Better Security

If you're running iOS 11.2.5 or older, you're exposed to an issue that lets people send a specific character that will crash an iOS-powered device and block access to the Messages app. It can also block apps like Facebook Messenger, Gmail, Outlook, and WhatsApp.

If you're running iOS 11.2.2 or below and receive a certain GitHub link through your Messages app, your iPhone or iPad can lockup or respring. The Messages app will also become unusable.

If you're on iOS 11.2.1, your iOS 11.2.6 update includes security improvements to Safari and WebKit to mitigate the effects of Spectre. If you're running an older version of iOS, your iOS 11.2.6 update will come with a lot more.

The iOS 11.1 update delivered eight security patches including a fix for a serious Wi-Fi vulnerability called KRACK or Key Reinstallation Attack. KRACK is an exploit that targets the common WPA2 encryption protocol.

If you're just now making to move from iOS 10 (or whatever you're on) to iOS 11, your iOS 11.2.6 update will come with additional security features.

Leo

We're The Phucarwe

10/04/2016 at 9:36 pm

Silly. Nothing in here addresses the inherent battery-draining qualities of yet another Apple downdate. Most of the “enhanced” features are aimed at improving apple’s bottom line rather than your device performance. I’m beginning to think more and more about abandoning a ship I’ve been sailing since the 80’s. C’mon, Apple.

SUZANNE HAMOOD

10/06/2016 at 11:51 am

there need to be yet another update to the IOS10. we should NOT be paying 700.00 for a phone that wont hold a battery charge for 8 hours. I have noticed a HUGH difference and I am not a big phone user. I could usually start off the day with a 100% and if not used much that day end the day with more than 50% Its 2:30 in the afternoon and I haven’t Hardley touched my phone today its at 34% WTF!!!

Steve miller

10/07/2016 at 2:10 pm

My 6s battery dies so fast with as much shut off and manual fetch email setting have helped a little but at 1% it seems to last for hours for some reason. I think the battery is still fine but something is ip with the battery indicator

Jonas

10/08/2016 at 8:50 am

Same apps, same settings and the difference is 9% battery drain over night compared to not even 1% on IOS 9. By % that is ridiculous and nearly and insane difference…. As other mentioned, this guide does not have much to do with battery tuning iOS 10, although in general terms it may work, but not for we who haven’t changed anything…

Elle

10/09/2016 at 7:53 am

for some reason my 6 drains at night after i upgraded the ios. Now every time I turn on my phone, instead of my lock screen I see my music screen and I’ve turned off that app. I went form 86% right before bed and woke up to 21%.

Brian

10/10/2016 at 5:09 am

My 5c says the battery life is fine, 50% plus, then without warning the phone will power down. When I try to power it back up, it shows the battery as being dead as a post. So I plug the phone in, and the phone immediately powers up, and shows the battery life as being where it was before it powered down…that was 57% this morning.

Mark

Rene Girardin

10/10/2016 at 12:05 pm

Here is a link to interesting discussions about iOS 10.0.2 and Fast Battery Drain on all iPhones. All the bla bla about how to lower battery usage is OK but there is a bug introduced in Network Settings.

Even the staff in the Apple shops are reluctant to admit there is a problem, even though its plastered all over the internet. My 6 plus has the same issues, 100% in the morning, by 6pm I’m down to 25%. Loads of apps are still working in the background, Facebook and Mail seem to be the main culprits on mine. Apple really need to up their game and stop messing around with things. Listen, if it aint broke, don’t fix it. Simples!!!

Luigi

10/16/2016 at 3:43 am

Guys I too have the same problem! I am angry!! But is it possible that these Apple release an update that sucks the battery like a ferrari to 240km / h ??? !! But crazy stuff !! It lasts less than half the time of use which I did with iOS 9. But what the heck !!! Apple immediately solve this problem !! Otherwise I swear that I buy an iPhone no longer !!

jamie pollock

10/18/2016 at 1:41 pm

full charge at 7am… 3:30pm my iphone 6 shows 90% avail. Nothing special about my setup, I check email and send Texts during the day. I just don’t talk on it much nor use GPS. IOs 10 too. I must be lucky

Mike

10/19/2016 at 5:42 pm

ISO 10 is a joke we pay to much and for the phone and service to have to go through this on every major update now it’s the worse it’s ever been I also have a iPhones 5 that says 33% and it just turns off and I have to plug it in and it comes back on with the same amount of power 33% wtf is the deal it’s like the older the phone the worse like they are trying to force everyone to buy the newest phone apple is about to have another class action law suit how many can they take at on time I love my iPhone but there seriously pushing me away and it seem like there doing it to a lot of customers bad business they need to do there homework before they release another update load it to a few different phones and models before you release shit

Curtis S

Greg M

10/24/2016 at 9:38 pm

Hi I have updated my Ipad and now not only at first most of my Apps disappeared, Now it wont even charge to let me check things Surely an outfit like yours has have some accountability for this, this is a disgrace , I had been using this for my business, NOT Happy at all.

Kai

10/28/2016 at 10:53 am

Do not update to IOS 10…I repeat do not update. 10.1 does not help either. Battery life 10 mins if not plug into a charger. Constantly crashes and get stuck in reboot loop. Apple genius swear there is nothing wrong with the software when I brought my iPhone 6 in. Battery life performance at 80% when ran diagnostics, genius solution was to have it replaced. My only solution is to have the phone plug in a portable charger all day and remain plugged everywhere I go. Just waiting on the 7 to be in stock…if same problem arrives, I will be officially done with apple.

This is not a problem with the apps draining the battery. It’s a bug, in my opinion, with how iOS monitors the battery. I’ve had my phone at 80% and all of the sudden it shuts off, and won’t power back on saying the battery is dead. Once I hook it up to power, it comes back on, still says it’s at 80%, and I can then disconnect from power again and it’s fine. This is happenning all the time since upgrading. The latter versions of iOS 9 did this too, but it would have to be down at 20 or 30%. I believe iOS 10.0.1 was better, but since going to 10.0.2, it’s worse again. This is a real pain.

Kenneth Wilson

12/31/2016 at 8:12 pm

The problem is definitely the OS. IT seems Apple is trying to push people into buying new phones. Went to Apple. Did the whole reset thing.. no change. The y then suggest it was probably the because it would not charge in their kiosk and to replace it would be $300.00. Take the phone home and the phone charges without any issues. Changed every setting possible with no change. The IPhone 6 would last about 2 hours without doing anything on it.

Changed the battery out. still no change.

Ended up downloading the Public beta 10.2.1 Beta 2. Phone went from 2 hours to 8 hours with not really using the phone.

It still has problems, but at least this helped, But Apple is definitely hiding something.

Stacey

01/28/2017 at 12:45 pm

I started with 100% battery life when I went to bed. Played a game for about 15 min and turned that off. Set the alarm, went to bed. Woke up wondering why my alarm didn’t go off on my phone. My phone was dead with only 2% battery life. I deleted the game, thinking it may have caused trouble, but it was only using 30% of my battery. Today after 100% charge and not using my phone, it’s already lost over 20% charge. Something is draining my battery and came here looking to see if I was the only one with an abnormally draining battery after 10.2.1 update. I use an iphone 7. Think I’ll go with Samsung galaxy for my next phone. Had troubles with iphone 6 with updates and I lost cellular connection with iphone 6, now having troubles again. Been one thing after another. I’m losing 1% of battery life every few minutes. I don’t have app refresh on either. Hope this gets fixed!

Tim

Rosemary

02/12/2017 at 9:15 am

Since I upgraded to iOS 10.2 my battery has been draining up to 30% overnight & lasts no time at all throughout the day. I bought apple iPad Air as the battery life was 10 hours. Now I’m lucky to get 2-3hours. I’m really annoyed by this. I’ve had to follow online advice about switching off apps & conserving battery life by basically not using my iPad! Even with all this, there’s no great improvement. Is Apple going to fix this situation? It’s like they’ve bugged their own customers’ devices! Not the smartest move. I’m frustrated & let down.

Karen Parker

03/08/2017 at 12:55 pm

“There’s no guarantee the iOS 10.2.1 update will solve your problem but we, and others, have noticed improvements.” I disagree as I did not have the battery drain issue until I installed 10.2.1. I have made all your recommended changes, turned off all notifications, and still getting less than 8 hours on a charge. If you go to Apple support they just keep up with the same old recommendations and will not even take ownership of the issue. So fed up I am ready to switch to Android if Apple doesn’t fix this nonsense soon.

Nicole Seiler

03/12/2017 at 5:15 am

2 weeks after my 2 year contract ran out, by end of December 2016, I started to have serious battery problems on iPhone 6. It came suddenly, just like that. I hadn’t done any update. I am still on IOS 9.3.2. I didn’t risk to update on IOS 10, afraid issues will get worse. Example: I leave the house iPhone charged 100%. 1,5 hours later: 75%. I was maybe 15 minutes on Facebook in those 1,5 hours. One hour later I got a phonecall. I noticed that battery now showed just 57%. The call didn’t last more than 2 minutes. The iPhone shut down after the call. I hang it on an extern battery, it showed again 47%.